Stats: 19.78 km / 6:25 hours MT / 1122m gain / 1087m high
The stats for this one are deceiving. You'd think with that much elevation gain, it'd be more challenging. But most of the route is on a deactivated FSR meaning the grade is quite gradual. It does leave you good and tired at the end of the day though, because of the length of it.
Ignore the "NO ACCESS" sign at the gate. Shorty after starting, we passed lots of old debris from mine drilling. Stay right at the fork just beyond this. The iron cart is new and much of the shelves holding boxes of drilling samples, have been removed.
This used to be a potable water source for the community below.
Pic 1) Harrison River. The last 2 pics are looking west and northwest on Harrison Lake. This was our last viewpoint of Harrison Lake, before turning the corner and soon coming to a solid blanket of snow (900m) and the fork to Bear Lake. We stayed left, leaving the lake for later. At this point we'd already climbed 875m.
The snow was old and had a well worn foot path, thus no post-holing. The ground was fairly level for the next 45 minutes.
Frog pond. On a previous hike, as I approached this pond, I heard what sounded like a Boeing jet engine. It was frogs!
The last 20 minutes we finally left the FSR and hiked on this trail through hemlock and fir trees. We put our micro-spikes on here.
The trail dipped down a bit before climbing again, the last stretch being quite steep.
And then as you pop out of the trees, voila! What a view!
West on Sumas Prairie.
The Cheam Range. I've summited 3 of those peaks: Cheam, Lady & Knight (from right to left).
Back down we go. It took us 4 hours (with breaks) to get up.
Negotiating some slippery steep steps and hoping the snow bridge doesn't give way.
A short side hike to Bear Lake.
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